So...about that plane on the treadmill...

"Travis Marlatte" wrote in message
et...
"Bob Noel" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Jose wrote:

The wheels don't have to push on anything for an aircraft to take
off...there's no drivetrain feeding power to the wheels!

Right. Phrasing it the way I did may get people to realize this, or at
least to think about it themselves.

If you put an airplane on the roof of a speeding train, would it take
off? What if the train were shaped like a runway? What if it were very
thin?

hmmmm, if you put the airplane on, say, a fast moving ship, could it
take off?

I wonder....

--
Bob Noel
Looking for a sig the
lawyers will hate


I don't think so. I've seen videos of planes launching from an aircraft
carrier (that's a fast moving ship, right) fall right off the end. I guess
it's because the forward motion of the carrier negated the forward thrust
of the plane.


What you saw was an aircraft that failed to achieve and or retain a critical
airspeed. Either the catapult failed or the engine failed or, well any
number of things. There is a reason carriers turn into the wind to launch
aircraft. There is also a reason that carriers can't launch fixed wing
aircraft while tied to the dock. Well they might be able to but a lot of
things have to be perfect.